Sign



P. S. VAN BLOEM July 1a, 1 26.

SIGN

Filed Sept. 5. 1925 INVENTOR Paul Jelly/1e! BY s ATTORNEYS I I 'l'll l/Ill/l/IlII/lIlIlIIlII/lll/l/IIfIIlIlII/l Patented July 13, 1926.

UNITED STATES ,PAT-ENT oFFIcE.

PAUL SCHUYLEB VAN BLOEM, 0F HEMPSTEAD, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO VIKING" V PRODUCTS CORPORATION, 01 NEW"YORK, N. Y A CORPORATION OI VANIA.

. SIGN.

Application filed September 5, 1925. Serial No. 54,772.

This invention relates to signs and one of its objects is to provide a sign comprising a translucent plate adapted to be illuminated from the rear and formed with impressed indicating characters in its rear face, the material and form of the plate being such that the said characters will be invisible from the. front when the plate is unilluminoted but will become distinctly, visible upon the illumination of the plate.

A further object is the rovision of a. translucent sign plate bearing indicating characters at its rear face and adapted when unilluminated to present a uniform color tone with the said characters invisible from the front. When the plate is illuminated from the rear the characters and the area surroundin them will both appear in the same color ut in contrasting tones, and the characters will be rendered clearly distinguishable.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the sign plate mounted on a lamp casing;

Fig. 2 a section on the line 2-2 of Fi 1;

Fig. 3 a fragmentary rear face view 0% the sign plate;

Fig. 4 an enlarged section through the sig; plate taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3; an

Fig. 5 a view similar to Fig. 1, upon a reduced scale, showing the effect produced when the sign plate is illuminated.

Referring to the parts by numerals, 1 designates the sign or signal plate which is formed of translucent or colored glass. The plate 1 is adapted to be illuminated from the rear and at its rear or light-receiving face 2, characters 3, in reverse, are deeply impressed or molded in the plate. As shown in the drawing the characters are the letters of the word Down. defined by depressions 4 of material depth which are formed in the plate when it is molded. Each depression has straight side walls 5 and a fiat bottom 6. The plate is made larger than the over-all dimensions of the characters in order to provide a surrounding field, and the thickness of the plate throughout said surrounding field is substantially uniform. The rear or light receiving face 2 of the plate is preferably fiat and smooth, while thev front or lightdepressions.

The characters arev transmitting face is slightly roughened as at. i

7 to adapt it to diffuse light.

As shown in the drawings the plate is mounted over the open front of a casing G and a lamp L is suitably located and mounted within the casing to properly illuminate the late. The casing is adapted to exclude outside light from the rear face of the plate;

It will be understood, ofcourse, that the lamp and sign could be ways than the one shown.

The plate 1 is of uniformcolor and formed of glass that is uniform in character greatlyjreduce the thickness of the plate be- 1 tween the bottoms of the depressions and the front face of the plate,-but said thickness is sufllcient to render the depressions invisible from the front of the rear is unilluminated.

mounted in other plate when the When the lamp L is illuminated many."

of the light-rays which fall upon the field surrounding the characters will be obstructed or absorbed when they enter the thick portion of the plate, while the portion of the plate which is reduced in thickness by the character depressions will offer far less obstruction to the light rays which fall in the the plate will present the appearance of a As a result the front face of V brightly luminous sign or signal portion and a materially less luminous surroundin field. This contrast in luminosity will ren er the indicating characters clearly distinguishable as indicated in Fig. 5. The translucent glass vThis is because of the exclusion of light from the rear face of the plate by the casing, and because the roughened front face 7 of forming the plate may be either colored or p the plate causes a diffuse reflection of the light which falls upon it from the outside. This diffuse reflection at the front face of the plate masks the characters formed at the rear face.

- In the drawing the plate is shown as formed with characters suitable to an elevator signal. It will be understood, however, that such a plate is easily adaptable for sign purposes also by merely varying the form of the indicating characters. The tone and luminosity of the plate may be varied to suit the different requirements, by varying the opacity of the glass "and the thickness of the plate. In the case of an elevator signal it is desirable that considerable illumination appear through both the characters and the surrounding field in order to quickly attract attention to the approach of a car and providing a degree of light obstruction proportional to its thickness and the body hemg larger than the over-all dimensions of the said depression outline with the portion of the body surrounding the depression of greater thickness between said front and rear faces than the thickness of the portion between the bottom of the depression and said front face, this latter portion being of sufiicient thickness to conceal the depression when not illuminated, whereby when the body is illuminated from the rear the character will be rendered distinguishable is unilluminated at the rear the character will be indistinguishable from the front.

2. A sign plate of translucent glass formed with a roughened li lit-diffusing front face, and with a rear face including an area conforming in outline to an indicating character and an area surrounding said character area, the glass of the plate providing a degree of light obstruction proportional to its thickness and the portion of the plate between the front face and the character area of the rear face being of different thickness than the portion between the front face and the character'surrounding area of the rear face, whereby when the plate is illuminated at the rear the character and the surrounding portion will appear with contrasted luminosity when viewed from the front, and whereby the character will be invisible when the plate is unilluminated.

3. A sign device com rising a casing, a lamp therein, a trans ucent glass plate mounted in said casing to exclude outside light from the rear face of said plate and to expose the front face, the rear or inner face of said plate being formed with relatively deep character depressions, said depressions being invisible'from the front when the rear face of the plate is unilluminated, and the front face of the late being roughened to cause a diffuse resection of the light rays falling thereon from outside the casing.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

PAUL SCHUYLER VAN BLOEM. 

